The Warren Sun

A request by the IT department of the Clintondale Community Schools to conduct a proper inventory of its hardware proved contentious during the May 22 board meeting.

The proposal, which was ultimately approved, ignited a debate between CCS Board President Michael Scott and Trustee Beverly Lewis-Moss.

Lewis-Moss said she was under the impression that the previous consulting work done by an IT company, and the responsibility of IT employees, should be adequate enough for inventory control.

Scott countered that the previous consultants had only provided improvement suggestions and no inventory, and that their IT department is comprised of new employees who had no history or information to move forward.

Interim Superintendent Barbara VanSweden said the proposal would provide a detailed account of what property is owned by CCS, along with a condition report concerning hardware and infrastructure.

“We don't have the level of detail depth that we need,” said VanSweden. “Our previous IT department ... this goes back a number of years ... had started an inventory, but so much equipment has been added because of the one-to-one initiative at both the high school, the middle school and the elementary. Also, we've had a transition of the entire tech department in a very short period of time.“

Board member Jared Maynard said the inventory was “another example of something that got dropped that should have been taken care of. This one, luckily, is covered by grant money,” which was secured by their business director to help facilitate growth and improvements in their individual departments.

Trustee Barry Powers also spoke on the issue, sharing that information has not been adequately shared and communicated because much of the board is new and therefore doesn’t know a lot of the day-to-day business history.

Powers defended the district administration and board and said there was no use blaming or dwelling, and they should instead find a solution to move forward and be better when these situations arise.

“We're at a deficit of information,” Powers said. “But the question is, you know, how do we mitigate this? Because that's what we're trying to do.”